Wuling Farm 武陵農場

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Wuling Farm is a recreational farm in the mountains of Taichung, Taiwan. It is one of the only places that you can spot the endangered Formosan Landlocked Salmon in the wild, and includes flowers, fruit trees, tea plantations, cherry blossoms, hikes, camping, waterfalls, and wildlife to enjoy. It is a great place to experience Taiwan's high mountain ecology.

Background:
Originally the Qijia Valley where Wuling Farm sits was home to seven families of the Ayatal Tribe, and aboriginal peoples lived here starting over 4,000 years ago. The aboringal people were relocated to Sqoyaw Village in the 1950s. 
Wuling Farm was established in 1963 as a way to provide a living for retired KMT veterans. The farm's original purpose was to plant temperate fruit trees and vegetables. 
Starting in 1989, the farm began tourist acticites, such as building a campground, tea houses, gardens, hotels, and a tourist service center. 
The farm sits at about 2000 meters above sea level (6,561 feet).

Website:
https://lang.wuling-farm.com.tw/lang/index.php 

Price:
160 NT per person to enter
50 NT for cars
10 NT for scooters

Accommodation:
We recommend staying overnight because you will likely have to travel a long time to get here (4 hours from Taipei), and staying overnight lets you maximize your time here. You can book online for one of the following accommodation options:
Wuling National Hostel (2,000 NT - 8,000 NTD per night)
Wuling Hoya Resort (6,000 - 15,000 NTD per night)
Wuling Campground (1,000 - 2200 NTD per night)

Hours:
24/7

When to go:
A popular time to go is in March-April when there are cherry blossoms. Also, it can get very cold in the winter.

How to get there:
By Car/Scooter: It is actually faster to travel to Wuling Farm from Taipei instead of downtown Taichung, even though technically the farm is in Taichung City. From Yilan, take provincial highway 7 through Datong Township and up the mountain until you reach Wuling Farm.  
By Bus: Taiwan Tour Bus and Lion Travel have busses that leave from Taipei and arrive 4 hours later. 

Map:
Please see below:

Our Journey:

We have been to Wuling Farm once during August 2021 and we had a great time. We stayed two nights, one at the National Hostel, and one at the campground. Probably the most memorable things we saw were the landlocked salmon, monkeys, and the trailhead to Snow Mountain. 

For an overview of the area, check out our video above. 

See a 360 degree spherical panorama above the campground above. 

See a 360 degree spherical panorama above the very north end of the valley above. 

Coming from Taipei, we drove up through Datong Township of Yilan, which was a beautiful area. 

We noticed that there is a ton of cabbage grown here. 

Beautiful view of the valley.

We also had a pit stop past Datong Junior High School near the entrance of Taipingshan National Park.

View down a river valley.

And we saw a ton of water pipes here. 

The road gets really windy and steep here, so we had to stop here and clean up vomit, as well as get some fresh air. 

We finally made it to the top of the hill at Yakou. Usually you can see a great view over Yilan from here, but because of the fog we couldn't see nothing. 

But the fog was also beautiful. 

Getting closer to Wuling Farm we saw a lot of these open pastures in the mountains. 

More views of the drive up to Wuling Farm above. 

We finally made it into the Farm and paid the 160 NT per person entry fee. 

The first thing we saw was the barricaded Buddha which was closed off for some reason. 

More photos from the main entrance above. 

We quickly checked in to the National Hostel which was nice but a bit small. We paid about 2,000 NT for one night.

They also serviced buffet dinner and breakfast which was okay. 

People lining up for the buffet.

More photos from the National Hostel above. 

Next we moved on to the flower garden in front of the main visitor's center. 

It seemed lavender was in bloom. More photos can be seen above. 

Then we finally came to the main visitor's center. 

There is an exhibit here as well as a restaurant and small store. More photos can be seen above. 

Famous lion statue in front of the visitor's center.

In front of the lion statue, we saw this family of monkeys. which was the highlight of our trip.

A monkey slinking through the grass.

Juvenile playing with a stick. 

An old Monkey stands guard.

And then we saw the monkeys climb onto vehicles. I don't know why. They climbed on our car, too.

More photos of the Monkeys above.

We didn't stay at the Hoya Resort, but it sure looked nice from the outside.

Also there were some orange Daylilies in bloom on the mountain. This place reminds me of
Sixty Stone Mountain in Hualien. 

More photos of the Daylily field above. 

They say you can see Formosan Landlocked Salmon (櫻花鈎吻鮭) from this spot, but I did not see one. 

There is an entire platform dedicated to watching the salmon here. More photos in the gallery above.

Trail down to the Formosan Landlocked Salmon fishery. 

Here they breed salmon and release them into the wild. Thanks to the efforts of scientists here, the numbers of Formosan Landlocked Salmon has started to rebound. 

The Formosan Land-locked Salmon, an endangered species that lives in the mountains of central Taiwan, and became landlocked after the last ice age when temperatures at sea level became too hot. You can see them at Wuling Farm in Taichung.

The endangered Formosan Landlocked Salmon as seen in the wild. Easiest to see when they are juveniles in a pond behind the hatchery at Wuling Farm.

Hard to see but there are some wild salmon fries here. 

More photos from the Formosan Landlocked Salmon Ecological Center (台灣櫻花鉤吻鮭生態中心(鮭魚館) above. 

Near the ecological center is the main administrative building. 

Near the administrative building you can find a greenhouse and flower garden. 

Honey bee polinating a flower. 

More photos of the greenhouse above. 

Also near here you can find the former summer retreat of former KMT dictator Chiang Kai-shek. 

His statue is also nearby.

View inside his living room. Unfortunately, tours were not available when we visited. 

There is also a bridge and pavilion over a fishpond near the house. 

And there are geese and fish. More photos of the area above. 

View of Wuling Farm near the campground from the air, summer mornings here are incredible. Also the campground is huge.

View of Mt. Tao (3325M) above the campground at Wuling Farm. We were surprised to see the playground equipment at the campground free for kids to play on, while all playgrounds in Taipei are still covered in yellow caution tape.

The whole time we were there it seemed like masks were optional...

Here is a view of the "tents" you will pay for 1000 NT per night. 

There are also washing machines and showers here, and you can also rent sleeping bags.

There is also a restaurant and convenience store at the camp.

Parking near the tents is plentiful.

And there is a shuttle bus that goes all around the park. 

View of the main camp entrance. If you want BBQ stuff, you need to book in advance. But we were able to book a tent on the fly, on a last minute descision to stay an extra day. In the end we did not regret it.

The "tent" is a plywood building the size of a double bed. It comes with mattresses.

More photos of the campground above. 

Nar the campground is also a nice flower garden with great views of the surroundings. 

Flowers with Mount Tao in the background. 

Aerial view of the north side of the farm. 

More views from the flower garden above.

If you go up further up the road, you will make it to the entrance to the Snow Mountain trail.

There is a forestry building here as well as a retention pond that is the most popular photo destination on the farm.

See above for our first visit on a cloudy day.

And see above for photos of the area on our second visit, on a sunny day.

There is a newly built suspension bridge along the road that leads to a tea plantation. 

View from the top of the bridge. 

Near the tea plantation there is also sort of a museum, including this old WV bus that used to transport people around the farm. 

and more exhibits that were closed off, probably the employee dorms. 

Tea production machinery. 

And here you can see the moon watching pavilion (觀月樓). We did not see the moon here. 

More photos of the area above. 

Just down the road a bit is the Wuling Tea Store (武陵茶莊). They also serve food here and there is a convenience store and gift shop. 

Across the street from the tea store is the Feifeng Bridge.

I think there are some hiking trails across the bridge but we did not venture that far. More photos can be seen in the gallery above.

View of the river from the Feifeng bridge.

Toward the north of the farm are more orchards and gardens like this one. 

View of an orchard via drone. 

More photos of the area in the gallery above. 

Last at the end of the road on the farm is the trail to Taoshan Waterfall, and Taoshan itself. The trail to the waterfall is about 4 KM and it takes at least two hours to get there. 

There is also another visitor's center here. 

And a man made waterfall.

View of the virgin forest on the way to Taoshan. 

River below.

You have to cross this bridge, Wuling Bridge.

Another waterfall through the trees. 

Someone's cabin out here. 

Sun shining through the trees. 

More photos of the area above. We did not make it up to the waterfall, we did not have enough time. Maybe next time we can do more hiking in the area.

Thanks for reading and be sure to stay tuned for more of our blogs on "Taiching City" to come.

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